Please read carefully our Office Policies and Procedures. If you require clarification or have any questions, please consult with our receptionist. In an ongoing effort to serve our patients more effectively and efficiently, we have established the following policies and procedures and specific hours for specific procedures as follows: Special Appointments, Exams and Ancillary Services "Special" appointments are more involved, and / or require specially trained technicians or practitioners, and thus require more human resources. These include appointments for consultations, nutritional exams, initial medical exams / assessments or laboratory assessments. . Due to their comprehensive and time intensive nature, these appointments are booked during special hours so that doctor will have the necessary time to meet your needs. Please understand that it may not always be possible to book a special appointment at the same time as your normal appointment. Appointments for Treatments Appointments for treatments only, such as medical treatments, nutritional treatments, etc., are scheduled during our preferred treatment hours whenever possible. These hours allow for minimal interference with most of our clients’ work schedules while they are undergoing the most intensive part of their treatment programs. During these preferred treatment hours, appointments are limited to treatment only (in all but emergency situations) in order to maximize efficiency and to minimize impositions to those whose care necessitates frequent treatment. Therefore, we must insist that if a new challenge or complication has arisen since your upcoming appointment for "treatment only" was booked, please notify us in advance, so that we may re-arrange your appointment in order to accommodate your special needs. This will allow the doctor and our staff sufficient time to provide you with appropriate care while preventing any impositions to other clients. Case Analysis Due to the comprehensive and integrative nature of our approach, it is common for us to study and analyse your case (history, consultative notes, emails, voice-mails, diet, activity and symptom records, test results, etc.) between and/or before your office visits. This will be done whenever necessary and possible to ensure proper briefing and the most effective use of your visits to our office. You will be billed accordingly to the time spent on analysing your case and determining the most beneficial clinical approach. We realize when it comes to your healthcare, and unlike most health care offices, we encourage your active participation in your care. Therefore, we will be happy to review any collateral materials you bring or send in that you would like your provider to study and this will be considered and billed as part of your case analysis. Telephone and Online Consultations Fees for telephone and online consultations are billed the same way in-office consultations are. All fees for consultations are based on the amount of time required to review your case file and conduct your consultations. Appointment Booking "An ounce of prevention is worth many pounds of cure" Our office commitment is to remove the causes of illness and premature aging in preference to just treating the symptoms wherever possible. In an effort to identify the cause or causes of your health condition, the doctor will first conduct a consultation, examination and any other assessments indicated (lab, nutritional, stress, etc.). If at the end of your evaluation the primary care provider you have seen feels you will respond favourably to care at this office, she will prescribe a course of care, which will usually include a combination of educational material, specific therapies, consultations and then subsequent re-assessments and re-examinations. These re-assessments and re-examinations are crucial to the doctor's ongoing evaluation of your response to the prescribed program. They provide the objective feedback on your health condition, which is necessary for the doctor to distinguish whether changes to your program are indicated at that time. Both common sense, reflection and scientific analysis have long since revealed that which should be obvious; the fact that the overt symptoms (e.g. pain), which eventually motivate the individual to seek the advice of a health professional, are simply the obvious and eventual manifestation of a more subtle, longer term sequence of changes in the body's health state. This means that your more obvious symptoms of disease will often clear long before their cause has been removed or effectively managed. Our conscientious physician’s and clinical staff endeavour to attend to these underlying causes in addition to the symptoms, which they have precipitated. It is with the above in mind that your appointments will be scheduled from examination and assessment through to your next re-examination and re-assessment. The length of time between re-evaluations will vary with the nature of your health goals and the severity of your condition. All anticipated consultations and treatments between your re-evaluations would be booked in advance. This not only ensures that you receive the appointment times which suit you best, but it facilitates follow through on your prescribed program and subsequently improves the results achieved. This procedure also serves to reduce the strain on our staff and other clients; which attempts to accommodate short notice appointment requests often create. We prefer to limit those occasions to emergency situations. We do, however, understand that there are times when circumstances necessitate appointments on short notice and we are committed to doing our very best to accommodate such requests. Our multiple primary care provider staff has been designed for just such purposes, and we ask that you understand this in the event you are scheduled with another provider on staff other than your supervising practitioner.   Appointment Changes Our client’s health is not a matter we take lightly. Our commitment is to help you to achieve your desired outcomes with respect to health. This necessitates that your health be given a high priority. It is with this in mind that we discourage appointment changes in all but the most exceptional situations. Following through on your consultations, as scheduled, will ensure that you get the support you need to achieve your health goals. Years of experience with thousands of patients has proven that patients who keep their appointments as scheduled and allow us to support and coach them, get far better results. We will always strive for the most efficient and cost-effective approach to the management of your health challenges. Please note that if you need to change an appointment for any reason, we reserve the right to charge for that cancellation with less than 24 hours notice. We regret to enforce this policy; however, with the rising costs of healthcare and in our effort to keep our fees fair and reasonable, we have been forced to implement such a policy. We sincerely appreciate your effort in helping keep our fees down by providing us the courtesy of notifying us if a commitment to an appointment cannot be kept. Note: Leaving a message on our answering machine on the weekend for a Monday appointment, does not allow us proper time to re-book that appointment for anyone else. If the appropriate cancellation notice is given, there will be no charge for the missed appointment. If you cancel your appointment without sufficient notice for us to schedule someone else in the time slot we reserved for your care, you will be billed.   Non-Covered Services and Products: Many of the services and products we provide, and / or recommend, are not covered by traditional medical or health insurance and / or benefits. Although we only employee treatments, therapies and diagnostic approaches we feel represent the most efficient and effective way to restore and maintain health, many of these would be considered as "experimental", "unproven" or not of the consensus of medical opinion. We will inform you of those products and services that are not covered should we feel they are necessary in our approach to improving your health. By choosing to be a patient at our office, you are financially responsible for any service or product not covered by insurance. If you have any financial concerns about the cost of your care, please discuss them with one of our financial counsellors right away. However, with that said, we know that is the reason many of you have decided to partner with us in improving your health. We feel we offer the best of conventional and complementary medicine in an integrated approach that is wholistic, patient centred and effective. Informed Consent As a patient, you have the right to know and understand the risks and benefits of every procedure and treatment you undergo. This is termed Informed Consent. We have a full-disclosure policy in this office and will happily discuss any of your concerns, needs or questions in this area. Many of the assessments, treatments and approaches used in this office are not endorsed nor approved by the FDA (Federal Drug Administration), the AMA (American Medical Association) or any other governing or legislative body. Rather than making you sign another form every time we recommend a procedure, treatment, etc . . . . we ask that you take personal responsibility in letting us know if you have any questions or concerns. We will assume that if you verbally agree and / or willingly participate in a procedure, treatment, assessment, etc . . . . that you where made appropriately aware of the risks and benefits involved. It is your right to refuse, or accept, any treatment or service, so, if you feel uncomfortable and need more information in order to exercise your right, and then let us know immediately. Fees Fees for services are due the day that the service has been provided and/or products have been provided. For the specific fees for the various services, please consult the fee schedule, which you will receive on your first visit to our office. If you foresee any challenges financially, on review of this schedule, be sure to address them with our financial coordinator. For more information on our billing and insurance policy, click here. Service Exceptional quality and service in the delivery of health services and products is our goal. If through the course of your care you feel at any time that your needs have not been heard, attended to appropriately or handled with consideration and efficiency, we encourage and welcome your constructive feedback. Please participate to the greatest extent possible in our programs and help us to serve you to the best of our ability. We welcome the opportunity to learn through our client’s experiences and we enjoy the evolution, which results! Thank-you for choosing our office as part of your health team and we welcome you to ours.